(Source: West 8, 2012) WHAT’S OUT THERE TORONTO 1 THE TEAM WHAT’S OUT THERE: MEMBERS Jake Garland Katie Hickey Melinda Holland Nathan Jenkins Julien Kuehnhold Adam Sweanor Anne Winters & PLG720 Undergraduate Partners SUPERVISOR (PL8106) Nina-Marie Lister MENTORS Brendan Stewart, ERA Architects Kelsey Blackwell, Studio Blackwell PREPARED FOR OUR CLIENT The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) Charles Birnbaum, Founder and Director Matthew Traucht, Program Director 2 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction 7 The Commuter Landscape 56 Preface - About the Initiative 8 The Concrete City 60 Preface - Cultural Landscapes 9 What’s POP(ing) Toronto? 64 Purpose 10 Our Mandate 11 Chapter 4: Toronto’s Cultural Landscapes 69 City Precincts 70 Chapter 2: The Evolving City 13 Western Waterfront 73 The Timeline 14 Garrison Commons 76 1615 - First Settlers 17 Central Waterfront 78 1793 - The British Arrive 19 The 32 Park Lots 87 1853 - The Grand Trunk Railway 21 Toronto Islands 101 1909 - Toronto Guild of Civic Art 23 Old Town 103 1945 - Postwar Ambition 25 Eastern Waterfront 107 1954 - Hurricane Hazel 27 The Expanding City 113 1970 - Environmental Recognition 29 Today - Neighbourhoods 29 Chapter 5: What Now 133 Now - The Cosmopolitan City 31 Acknowledgements 135 Chapter 3: How to Read the Guide 33 Chapter 6: Methods 137 The Categorization 34 The Database 142 City Precincts 35 Layers of the Landscape 36 References 144 The Layers Defned 37 The Synergistic City 38 The Greenbelt Landform 42 Toronto’s Extensive Ravine System 46 A Change in Tide 50 4 5 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 6 7 PREFACE: ABOUT THE INITIATIVE PREFACE: CULTURAL LANDSCAPES UNESCO defnes cultural landscapes as, combined works of nature Cultural landscapes are important because they are a legacy for ev- THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FOUNDATION (TCLF) WHAT’S OUT THERE (WOT) and humankind that express a long and intimate relationship be- eryone. They reveal aspects of our country’s origins and development tween peoples and their natural environment (UNESCO website). as well as our evolving relationships with the natural world. It is Founded by Charles Birnbaum, TCLF, is a Washington, DC-based TCLF’s What’s Out There (WOT) guides and the associated online important to protect cultural landscapes because neglect and inap- non-proft organization that provides people with the tools to database serve as a reference to cultural landscapes for the public, Cultural Landscapes provide a sense of place and identity; they map propriate development put our irreplaceable landscape legacy in- see, understand and value cultural landscapes and the designers, academics and professionals. The guides provokes interest, informs our relationship with the land over time; and they are part of our na- creasingly at risk. (TCLF website). Ways in which cities develop today planners and landscape architects that help to create these plac- strewardship decisions, and enriches the collective understanding tional heritage and each of our lives. They are sites associated with are sometimes governed by short-sighted decisions that threaten es. Through its website, database, lectures, outreach programs and of our designed landscape history. In print and online, the WOT a signifcant event, activity, person or group of people.They range in the survival and continuity of our shared heritage. Therefore, it is publishing, TCLF broadens the support and understanding for cul- guides are a series of publications that serve as unique place-based size from thousands of acres of rural land to historic homesteads. everyone’s responsibility to safeguard cultural landscapes to preserve tural landscapes throughout the US and now in Canada to assist model to the cultural landscapes of selected cities in North America. They can be grand estates, farmlands, public gardens and parks, col- histories of the past, present and future. Toronto in developing a strategy for protection of the cultural land- lege campuses, cemeteries, scenic highways, and industrial sites. scapes in Toronto. They are works of art, narratives of cultures, and expressions of regional identity (TCLF website). 8 9 PURPOSE OUR MANDATE Why is this discussion important to the City of Toronto right now? landscapes we have grown accustomed to, those that have shaped 1 3 Toronto is in need of a strategy that allows us to better understand our lives, have been consciously planned, either by professionals, or TO IDENTIFY TO EDUCATE and interpret our landscapes. In identifying, protecting and educat- by the traditions of a particular community. Even though the neces- To be the frst to identify cultural landscapes in Toronto. To identify To emphasize how the history of our city is embedded in our cultur- ing, we hope to provide the city with the necessary compiled re- sary pieces of policy exist, the importance of stewarding our cultural cultural landscapes in Toronto by highlighting our connection to the al landscapes.To educate the public representatives and residents o search in order to prevent short-sighted planning decisions from landscapes will not resonate without a full understanding of their public realm, and to promote the need to steward these spaces. promote awareness and stewardship of cultural landscapes and em- threatening the vitality of our cherished public spaces and shared intrinsic values. Toronto’s current policy context does not provide de- phasize the role of the public in protecting these pockets of urban cultural heritage. cision-makers with a strategy to fully inform and guide decisions history. 2 concerning the future of development around these culturally sig- TO PROTECT Although we have learned to appreciate the most famous, impres- nifcant spaces. To assist and support a preservation strategy for the City of Toronto. To sive, and heavily designed spaces, we often fail to see the importance protect cultural themes which have defned our City. The way that we of the historic, vernacular, ethnographic and mildly-designed spaces. Torotonian’s ought to be proud of the landscapes that we have col- currently manage and steward the public realm is ad hoc, we need to In Toronto specifcally, some of the most imposing structures and lectively created, and as a community, we should do more to under- protect our cultural landscapes in a much more proactive way. landscapes bear no familiar signatures and we often forget that the stand them, protect them and bring them to public attention. 10 11 CHAPTER 2: THE EVOLVING CITY 12 13 TIMELINE 1615 1793 1853 1909 1945 1954 1970 NOW 1615 1793 1853 1909 1945 1954 1970 NOW 14 15 FRENCH MAP OF TORONTO 1615 1675 FIRST SETTLERS As with all North American cities, original settlement begins with the First Nations. The Iroquois are dated to have occupied the north shore of Lake Ontario as far back as 1615 (Hayes, 2008). A number of villages existed along the shores with two particularly noted on the frst set of European maps . The Teyeyagon was located near the mouth of the Humber River and the Ganatchakiagon was located on the Rouge River. Both played integral roles for fur trading between the First Nations and the French (Hayes, 2008). This area was given the name “The Toronto Carrying Place” and the map shown above is the trail that connected Lake Ontario to the Holland River and Lake Simcoe. This trail was 1615 1793 1853 1909 1945 1954 1970 NOW used as the primary route for fur traders (Hayes, 2008). Source: NewsAtlas, n.d. THE TORONTO CARRYING PURCHASE 1805 Source: NewsAtlas, n.d. 16 17 1793: THE BRITISH ARRIVE After the separation of Upper and Lower Canada, divided into 32 park lots that ran from the Don River Group, 2001). He developed a grand vision to reserve the area was recognized by the British as a suitable to Lansdowne Avenue with Bloor and Queen Street the whole waterfront, from the Town to the Fort and defensible area for settlement. In 1793 Lt- holding the north and south borders (Smith, 2013). as a reserve free of population (WGWG, 2001). This Governor John Graves Simcoe began laying the city’s Township lots, were further created and followed vision began to take shape when he set aside the foundation establishing Upper Canada’s new capital, the pattern of the Park Lots with double their width town’s two “bookends” for reservation - that being the Town of York. The western part of the lands were (Smith, 2013). The township lots were laid out in the Garrison Reserve to the west and King’s Park to reserved for government military use, while the rows called concessions, which were separated by the east (WGWG, 2001). eastern areas were used for settlement and covered road allowances giving way to the major corridors a total area of 10 blocks (Hayes, 2008). we see today such as Queen, Bloor and Eglington St It wasn’t until 25 years later when formal steps were (Smith, 2013). taken to enter the next stage of Simcoe’s grand Simcoe wanted an aristocracy to settle in the town so plan to begin linking the two reserves together. A he provided an incentive, using land as a commodity Shortly after the clearing of land began, Simcoe 30-acre strip located south of Front Street ran from to entice people to come (Smith, 2013). The land started to see the beauty of the natural landscape Parliament - Peter and was dedicated as park land beyond the original 10 blocks was surveyed and lining the water’s edge (Walks and Gardens Working under the name the Walks and Gardens (WGWG, 1615 1793 1853 1909 1945 1954 1970 NOW 2001). TOWN OF YORK’S 10-BLOCK SETTLEMENT TOWN OF YORK’S 32 PARKLOTS WATERFRONT PARK RESERVES KING’S PARK GARRISON RESERVE Source: Historical Maps of Toronto, n.d. Source: Historical Maps of Toronto, n.d. Source: Historical Maps of Toronto, n.d.